sleep @ Calon Y fferi

Dogfriendly Magazine Review

Read our comprehensive review of this listing printed in our bi-monthly magazine.

Calon y Fferi, Carmarthenshire
Review by: - Kathryn Austin

If you value community, great food, thoughtfully designed rooms, and a truly warm Welsh welcome then Calon y Fferi is the place for you. In the words of Ashley, (the dog loving hotel manager): “It might not look like an 18th-century chateaux on the outside, but on the inside, we are a hotel with a beautiful heart”. Ashley is absolutely right.

Don’t be fooled by outward appearances, the team have done a fantastic job creating comfortable interior and a total experience that lives up to its name. Calon y Fferi translated means the ‘heart of Ferryside’, and it is certainly that, far more than a bog-standard hotel. The site provides vital local support and opportunities for the entire community to come together to enjoy events, great food and a wide range of services.

A truly special place, Calon y Fferi is a not-for-profit enterprise that was given to the community in 2015. It has been established on strong principles of working to improve social inclusion, health and well-being. Volunteers contribute to improving the outside garden spaces and have supported years of painstaking renovation to make the site a thriving centre.

On-site there is a post office, a replacement for the recently closed village shop, a cafe, superb fine dining restaurant and bar, art gallery, small business units, and a boutique hotel focused on providing accessible and dog friendly rooms. The hotel rooms are all within the 1970s building and I am stressing this point because Ashley has welcomed guests who have been surprised by the exterior then not prepared to the give the place a chance. For the modest price, the rooms and great service offer brilliant value and it is wonderful to stay somewhere where your visit can actually make a positive difference to the local community.

The hotel part of the site is a professional enterprise and has been created with two specific needs in mind: to provide a great place to stay for visitors who have additional access needs and also to welcome guests travelling with their dogs. The team have created a number of seaside-themed rooms that work brilliantly for both target audiences. The dog friendly rooms all have direct access to outside space, and you are welcomed with a special pack, including bowls, towels, poo bags and treats. Humans are also warmly greeted with tea, coffee and some tasty Welsh cakes. 

The spacious rooms are practical for pups with hard flooring throughout and wet rooms that are perfect for sorting out muddy paws. Winnie, George (and myself) stayed in the Dominic Williams Suite, named after a local poet whose poem ‘Calon y bore’ features on the walls. The room has the advantage of being opposite the night entrance for a discreet pop-in-and-out and also easy access to the local park – just perfect. 

The hotel also provides free Wifi, onsite parking and a continental breakfast, all included in the room rate of £70 per night.  The hotel is located within walking distance of Ferryside train station, the local beach and is also only 15 minutes drive to Carmarthen, the major town of the county.

‘Pryd o fwyd’ is the onsite cafe by day and restaurant by night. It is operated as a separate business to the hotel but offers a great dining opportunity if you are staying over.

For evening meals dogs are welcome to join you in the foyer extension so you are able to enjoy the fabulous local menu designed by Guy (whose previous experience included working at Claridge’s). I enjoyed a starter of marinated artichoke with crottin goats cheese followed by perfectly cooked monkfish wrapped in prosciutto with a lentil, chorizo and fennel cassoulet. The service team were super. I chatted with Scott one of the waiters, who works in the restaurant in the evening just because he loves it. You get the sense that while the site is made up of differently operated businesses, they are all one team and pull together with the shared objective of making the whole of the Calon y Fferi venture a success. 

Check out the website for opening times and I would definitely recommend planning your visit and booking both a room and dinner. On the subject of food, the continental breakfast was also good with lots of choice, great service and again you can eat together with your dogs in the foyer. The hotel team made sure Winnie and George were well provided for with some breakfast treats.

We live in Wales but this part of Carmarthenshire is not somewhere we have explored before, so we decided that during our short break we would try to visit as much as possible within a 30-minute drive-time of the hotel. After our breakfast we set out for nearby Kidwelly an ancient small town with access to a super beach and dog friendly castle.

After a yomp around the castle (dogs are not allowed on the ramparts but welcome on the ground floor and surrounding grounds), we carried on to Parc y Bocs Farm Shop and Cafe, which is literally a Disney World for dogs! It was created by Burns Pet Nutrition, a holistic natural pet food company, and has grown into a destination in its own right with a dog pamper spa, dog friendly restaurant and huge shop full of the widest range of dog treats you will ever see under one roof. George and Winnie wandered around in a happy daze like ‘kids in a sweet shop’ sniffing such delights such as barrels of puffed turkey claws and rabbit ears. With a strict, ‘you lick it you buy it’ policy, I had to keep them on a tight leash!

I did in fact buy a range of treats I cannot get at home including the huge and slightly alarming, puffed turkey claws – two happy dogs!

After a quick latte in the cafe/restaurant at Parc y Bocs we set off for our second castle of the day on the opposite side of the estuary at Llansteffan. From 15 April there is a dog friendly pedestrian ferry service within walking distance from the hotel that will take you across the estuary to Llansteffan with its fabulous sandy beaches, coast path, castle and cafes you could make a super day of it without having to use the car. Sadly, we were a bit too early to enjoy the boat ride so we went the long way around and parked on the beach furthest away from the castle. Before 1 May the entire Llansteffan beach is dog friendly, after this date the central section is dog free. The ferry does warn you that they land in the restricted section so technically you have to carry your dog from the boat to the road. Hopefully, in practice, the local council recognise this policy is viable for a toy poodle but might be a bit tricky for an owner of a Great Dane! Out of high season we walked, unrestricted, along the entire beach through the village up to the castle and then back in a nice circular walk. From the castle ruins the views out to the huge expanse of the silvery bay are just beautiful and you can look back across to Ferryside and wave to Calon y Fferi which is only a few hundred metres as the crow flies.

After our quick tour of Llansteffan we followed the coastline around to Laugharne, famously the home of poet Dylan Thomas whom we like to believe must have been a dog lover as one of his best works is titled ‘Portrait of an Artist as a Young Dog’. We parked for free in the town centre, but I would imagine during holiday season parking will be scarce, so bring coins for the parking metres that only take cash. 

There are lots of dog friendly places to eat in the town. We decided to have a late lunch in ‘Arthur’s’ and it was a good choice. Winnie and George approved of the local whitebait and the server immediately came over with biscuit bones. After eating far too much we decided to work it off with a walk along the ‘Grist’, a path that follows the base of Laugharne Castle past Dylan Thomas’ Writing Shed and Boat House.

From Dylan’s home, rather than going back into town we followed the woodland walk that becomes the coast path and ended up doing a much longer and more beautiful walk than we had initially intended. Three castles, two beaches and two big walks down, we decided to carry on to Pendine Sands and finish the day with yet another beach walk, and what a beach – seven miles of sand as far as the eye can see. We did not walk the entire stretch as we were all flagging and I could see Winnie pondering about the turkey claws back in the car so we did a quick circuit and called it quits.

Exhausted we drove back to the hotel for a drink in the bar. We were planning on dinner at the recommended local Red Lion pub but after a long day of walks and eating it was a unanimous decision to have an early night.

After a great night’s sleep and breakfast, with some sadness we waved goodbye to Calon y Fferi and checked out fully refreshed and ready to go again. 

On our way home we decided to swing past the National Botanic Garden of Wales located just outside of Carmarthen. On Mondays, Fridays and the first weekend of each month they open for ‘Doggy Day’ where your pooch can mooch around 568 acres of gardens and access the cafe and shop. It was lovely to see the early spring planting and walk around with the dogs.

We also enjoyed a coffee (and a sneaky piece of cake) in the cafe. As we were in the immediate vicinity it would have been rude not to pop into Wright’s Food Emporium in Llanarthney, a locally famous destination deli.

Wright’s logo is a black cat but they seemed very happy to also welcome dogs in both the cafe and shop. We were a bit too early for lunch, so we bought some delicious treats to take home and enjoy later in the day.

We squeezed a lot into two days and based on our experience we can all happily recommend visiting this beautiful part of Carmarthenshire and staying at Calon y Fferi. We will definitely be back to visit the community hotel and the dogs are already demanding another trip to Parc y Bocs!

Calon y Fferi, Carmarthenshire review by Kathryn Austin and appears in DogFriendly magazine issue 73.  For more information on the DogFriendly magazine visit  https://www.dogfriendly.co.uk/magazine